The NFL: Now with MORE Regular Season!

“Ha ha ha, that’s a great one Bossman.  Now fuck off while I sleep on a bed of money.”  I’m just assuming that’s what Roger Goodell would say to that.

If you didn’t already know, the NFL has now gone to a 17-game regular season.  This hasn’t exactly thrilled the players and I don’t blame them.  Just one more opportunity to get injured during the regular season.  It means one less week of preseason football which is fine by me.  I still believe every team should have one road, one home and one neutral-site game during the preseason but that’s a conversation I’ve had many times before that no one wants to listen to.  It also means there will be no more .500 teams unless you get a tie during the season.  Somewhere Jeff Fisher is shedding a few tears.

Alright enough of that.  It’s more football that means something so that’s not a bad thing for the fans, right?  Now do fantasy football seasons extend by a week?  I better figure that out before, say, December.  Now, let me get to my NFL predictions for the season which sometimes I do well at and other times…not so much.  Here are the predicted standings! (* means I predict them to be a Wild Card team):

AFC East	NFC East
Buffalo 13-4	Dallas 9-8
Miami* 9-8	Washington 8-9
New England 9-8	NY Giants 5-12
NY Jets 4-13	Philadelphia 5-12
AFC North	NFC North
Cleveland 12-5	Green Bay 12-5
Baltimore* 11-6	Minnesota 9-8
Pittsburgh 8-9	Chicago 7-10
Cincinnati 6-11	Detroit 4-13
AFC South	NFC South
Tennessee 11-6	Tampa Bay 14-3
Indianapolis 9-8	New Orleans* 10-7
Jacksonville 4-13	Atlanta 6-11
Houston 2-15	Carolina 6-11
AFC West	NFC West
Kansas City 14-3	Seattle 12-5
LA Chargers* 10-7	LA Rams* 11-6
Las Vegas 8-9	Arizona* 9-8
Denver 7-10	San Francisco 8-9

Notes

• I always seem to talk about parity with the NFL but it may not be as much of the case this season. I have six teams winning at least 12 games and if I put it down to 11 wins, 9 teams fit the bill, which is over a quarter of the league.
• Where will the good division races be?  The AFC North, NFC East and, especially, the NFC West should have some excitement.  This time it’s not the Patriots but the Bills who will run away with the AFC East (for something completely different).  Same goes for the Chiefs and Bucs who should easily win their divisions.
• The NFC Wild Card race should be very interesting.  The Rams, if they don’t win the division, should get the top Wild Card (otherwise it would be the Seahawks in that spot).  The other two spots will have six teams competing for it.  One of those teams will win the NFC East as I have the Cowboys and Washington Football Team Of Fun And Frolic going down to the final week for the division crown.  I think the Saints pull ahead and are joined by the Cardinals but it won’t be easy for those teams.  It’s going to feel weird for a team to lose eight games and be over .500.  Again, cue the Jeff Fisher tears.
• The AFC should also have a great Wild Card Race.  Hey, maybe this extra game is a good thing.  Still not for the players but I digress.  The Ravens or Browns, whoever doesn’t win the AFC North should have an easy road to playing the worst division winner in the conference.  As for the other two spots, pick two out of the Dolphins, Patriots, Steelers, Colts, Chargers and Raiders.  That Week 18 (yes, WEEK 18!) should be phenomenal this season.  Now watch it be a dud with only one game meaning anything at all and it’s the Sunday nighter.
• It really is a question of how bad the Texans could be, not if they will be last.  Seventeen losses in a season?  That has to be in play in Vegas and the odds can’t be too bad for it, either.  And if they trade Deshaun Watson (or he is released because of the legal issues he faces), this team is dead in the water.  Gonna be a long year in H-Town.
• This could end up being the closest MVP race ever.  You’ve got Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray all in the mix.  Matthew Stafford in that Rams offense has to be intriguing.  Then you have Dax Prescott returning from a horrific leg injury after having an amazing start to the 2020 season.  And finally, possibly the last hurrah for Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.  In the end, I think Rodgers wins a close vote over Allen and Wilson.
• Rookies of the Year are always a crapshoot.  I know many will pick Trevor Lawrence and that’s not a bad choice.  I am going to go slightly down from there and say Justin Fields wins it and is the main reason the Bears are even in the playoff race in December and January.  On defense it’s even more difficult to predict.  I believe it will be Patrick Surtain II winning it although watch out for Zaven Collins as he could be a big dark horse possibility.

I have decided the new tradition of not putting a reason beside every playoff prediction is a good thing now with two extra Wild Card games.  This post would have got seriously long otherwise.  Alright let’s get right into the predictions:

Wild Card Round

(2) Buffalo def. (7) Miami

(3) Cleveland def. (6) LA Chargers

(5) Baltimore def. (4) Tennessee

(2) Green Bay def. (7) Arizona

(3) Seattle def. (6) New Orleans

(5) LA Rams def. (4) Dallas

Divisional Playoffs

(1) Kansas City def. (5) Baltimore

(2) Buffalo def. (3) Cleveland

(5) LA Rams def. (1) Tampa Bay

(3) Seattle def. (2) Green Bay

Conference Championships

(2) Buffalo def. (1) Kansas City

(3) Seattle def. (5) LA Rams

Super Bowl

(2) Buffalo def. (3) Seattle

I think this is a dream season for the Bills.  With their roster and Josh Allen at the top of his game and pretty much no holes in their lineup, this is the season for them two win it all.  After last year’s loss to the Chiefs, I believe they are playoff-hardened and ready to get some revenge.  The NFC will be a bit of a mess as I don’t think the top two seeds get to the conference championship.  The Rams, if they get on a roll, could go all the way with that offense.  I know they say defense wins championships but if the Rams can score over 30 a game in the playoffs they could do some major damage.  The Seahawks are another team to watch in the playoffs.  Let Russ cook and you got a problem.  In the end, I have my Buffalo Bills finally winning the Super Bowl that eluded them in the 90s and sending me into complete delirium.  I won’t know what to do.  Honest.  I’ll have to take a week off of work just to recuperate.

Next up is for all of you to just watch some damn college football!  We are 17 days away from Week Zero!  I keep checking for a TSN schedule but still nothing.  As soon as I find something I can complete what I have for Week Zero and finally do an actual schedule post: the first of the 2021 college football season.  Can’t wait!  And in the meantime, watch some CFL or preseason NFL to whet the appetite.  Have a great hump day, everyone!

So…..what now? (The Pac-12 Predictions)

Yeah you could say a lot has happened lately in the college football world.  With none of it having to do with the Pac-12.  They watched Texas and Oklahoma not join their conference instead going to the SEC, possibly as early as 2022.  They have to know that ESPN probably had a lot to do with the Texahoma Four (UT, OU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State) not going to the Pac-12 years ago and a lot to do with the Horns (Down) and Sooners heading to the SEC.  So the Pac-12’s question is….what now?

They have some options, none of them amazing.  They could probably pillage some of the teams from the Wreck of the Edmund FitzBig12.  They almost certainly wouldn’t get Kansas and their lucrative basketball program.  But those few teams would push them into the Central Time Zone which isn’t all bad.  Or they could bring in a Mountain West team or two *COUGH* Boise State *COUGH*.  I’m sure the Pac will not back BYU, no matter how much they claim religious bias.  Or they could take a combination from the two conferences.  Or they could stand pat (for now) at twelve teams.  Again, do any of these options sound amazing?  No.  But they should be on the horn with FOX and probably CBS (or even NBC as well) and determine what their potential TV contract options are since it sounds like it’s the networks, mainly ESPN, that drive all this realignment.  So might as well go straight to the source(s).

A lot will happen even in the next month.  There will be more rumours for sure.  Hell, there is one out there that says all eight remaining Big XII teams are considering merging with the Pac-12.  That sounds insane to me but you never know.  We are headed for a whole new world.  I just hope this new college football world doesn’t contain divisions.

A perfect lead-in to the Pac-12 predictions (which contains divisions unfortunately).  I will follow these with some Mystery Musings:

		Conference		Overall
	North	W	L	W	L
	Washington	8	1	11	1
	Oregon	7	2	10	2
	Stanford	5	4	7	5
	California	5	4	6	6
	Washington State	2	7	4	8
	Oregon State	0	9	3	9
	South
	USC	8	1	10	2
	Utah	7	2	9	3
	Arizona State	6	3	9	3
	UCLA	4	5	6	6
	Colorado	2	7	4	8
	Arizona	0	9	1	11

Mystery Musings

• Is Arizona really that bad?  Look, Jedd Fisch steps into a horrific situation in Tucson.  This team could potentially lay claim to the title of Worst Power Five team for 2021.  It is going to take a lot for them to get more than one win this season.  Luckily they have Northern Arizona on their schedule.  And at home.
• The South Division could be very close…again.  Arizona State could surprise everyone, including myself, and be even better than I predicted but man it’s a mess down there (what in the fuck is wrong with college football in the state of Arizona).  I still think USC is the class team of the Pac-12 South and should outlast the Utes for the division crown.
• Are the Cardinal back?  Wait…Is the Cardinal back?  That also doesn’t sound right.  Anyway, Stanford is slowly making their way back up the North Division ladder.  This won’t be the year they get to the top and to the Pac-12 Championship game but they are trending in the right direction yet again.
• As for the top of the North Division, I am going against the grain and saying Washington will beat Oregon in their meeting at Husky Stadium and claim the division title.  Most have Oregon as a Top 10 team and I see them just outside looking in.
• Oregon State was getting oh so close to getting back to a bowl game.  I see them taking a step back unfortunately as they don’t have the horses to compete with the top 4 in the division.  Poor Beaver fans.
• So for the Pac-12 title game I have USC defeating Washington.  Meaning the Pac-12 would, yet again, miss out on the College Football Playoff.  I am sure they cannot wait until the 12-team playoff begins.
• I see the Pac-12 getting eight bowl teams.  I think I say that pretty much every year and they almost never hit that mark.  Maybe one day I’ll learn.

We are more than three-quarters done the conference prediction posts.  Next is the conference that may be R’ing In P soon, the Big XII.  I almost feel sorry for them but this is the way college football is headed.

So we are exactly one month away from the start of the college football season.  I get it: Week Zero isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea and I fully understand.  I get way too excited for it only because it’s the start of the season, not because it has amazing matchups because it almost never does.  As for where these games will go, there are two games on ESPN that day.  Still no word on any semblance of a TSN schedule for the college football season so it wouldn’t surprise me if these go to the specialty pack.  Or if Bell, Rogers, Eastlink and any other cable company with a college football specialty pack of some sort decides they can’t start showing those games because they start their schedule Week 1, then these will appear nowhere in Canada.  Oh well, we can’t win ’em all.  Have a great rest of the week everyone!

My blog version of blind roulette: predicting the TSN schedule

Spoiler alert: this will be a gongshow.

It’s almost Canada Day meaning normally people would go out and camp and go to barbecues and get shitfaced.  Unfortunately, this year it is on a Thursday which kind of sucks since many businesses will close on the Thursday instead of the Friday, denying the employees a long weekend.  C’mon man, give ’em that long weekend!

Anyway, here’s my chance again to guess the TSN schedule.  And that’s what it kind of is: a guess.  I find I have less info as the years go on as to what the TSN schedule will look like because things change so much.  Take a look at this Fall.  The CFL is starting up again in early August and TSN airs all their games, with some showing on Saturdays.  And now with the Grey Cup being in mid-December (because of the later start to the season), it means we might not see as many college football games on TSN as we normally would late in the season.  Look, let’s just get this going and I will follow it up with some Labatt Blue notes (I’m not a fan of Labatt Blue but if someone offered me one I would gladly drink it because my favourite beer is free beer).  Any game where the station(s) has as asterisk beside it denotes it will also air on ABC:​​​​

September 2nd			Boise State at UCF	7:00 PM	TSN2
September 3rd			North Carolina at Virginia Tech	6:00 PM	TSN5
September 4th			Western Michigan at Michigan	Noon	TSN2
September 4th			West Virginia at Maryland	3:30 PM	TSN2
September 4th			Texas Tech vs. Houston (in NRG Stadium)	7:00 PM	TSN2
September 4th			BYU vs. Arizona (in Las Vegas)	10:30 PM	TSN2
September 5th			Notre Dame at Florida State	7:30 PM	TSN5*
September 6th			Ole Miss at Louisville	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN4, TSN5
September 11th			Washington at Michigan	7:30 PM	TSN2*
September 17th			UCF at Louisville	7:30 PM	TSN2
September 18th			Cincinnati at Indiana	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
September 25th			Texas A&M vs. Arkansas (in Arlington)	Noon	TSN1
September 25th			LSU at Mississippi State	Noon	TSN3
September 25th			Kentucky at South Carolina	Noon	TSN4
October 1st			Houston at Tulsa	7:30 PM	TSN2
October 2nd			Indiana at Penn State	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
October 2nd			Minnesota at Purdue	Noon	TSN3
October 2nd			Memphis at Temple	Noon	TSN5
October 8th			Temple at Cincinnati	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 8th			Stanford at Arizona State	10:30 PM	TSN2
October 9th			Florida State at North Carolina	Noon	TSN2*
October 9th			Maryland at Ohio State	Noon	TSN4
October 9th			LSU at Kentucky	Noon	TSN1
October 9th			TCU at Texas Tech	3:30 PM	TSN2*
October 16th			Nebraska at Minnesota	Noon	TSN1*
October 16th			Texas A&M at Missouri	Noon	TSN5
October 16th			Tulsa at USF	Noon	TSN3
October 16th			Alabama at Mississippi State	8:00 PM	TSN2
October 20th			Coastal Carolina at Appalachian State	7:30 PM	TSN1, TSN4
October 23rd			NC State at Miami	Noon	TSN1*
October 23rd			Northwestern at Michigan	Noon	TSN5
October 23rd			Temple at USF	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 30th			Iowa State at West Virginia	Noon	TSN2*
October 30th			Miami at Pittsburgh	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 6th			Penn State at Maryland	Noon	TSN4*
November 6th			Missouri at Georgia	Noon	TSN1
November 6th			Florida at South Carolina	Noon	TSN5
November 13th			Notre Dame at Virginia	Noon	TSN4*
November 13th			Georgia at Tennessee	7:00 PM	TSN3
November 20th			Arkansas at Alabama	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 26th			West Virginia at Kansas	Noon	TSN2
November 26th			Arizona at Arizona State	3:30 PM	TSN2
November 26th			USF at UCF	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 27th			Clemson at South Carolina	Noon	TSN2
November 27th			Virginia Tech at Virginia	3:30 PM	TSN2*
November 27th			Texas A&M at LSU	7:00 PM	TSN2
December 4th			Big XII Championship Game	Noon	TSN4*
December 4th			Sun Belt Championship Game	3:30 PM	TSN2
December 4th			ACC Championship Game	4:00 PM	TSN3*
December 4th			AAC Championship Game	8:00 PM	TSN3*
December 17th			Bahamas Bowl	Noon	TSN2
December 18th			New Mexico Bowl	2:15 PM	TSN2
December 18th			LA Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN5*
December 18th			New Orleans Bowl	9:15 PM	TSN2
December 21st			Idaho Potato Bowl	3:30 PM	TSN2
December 21st			Frisco Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN2
December 23rd			Gasparilla Bowl	7:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 25th			Camellia Bowl	2:30 PM	TSN2
December 27th			Quick Lane Bowl	11:00 AM	TSN5
December 27th			Military Bowl	2:30 PM	TSN5
December 28th			Guaranteed Rate Bowl	10:15 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 29th			Pinstripe Bowl	2:15 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 30th			Duke’s Mayo Bowl	11:30 AM	TSN3
December 30th			Music City Bowl	3:00 PM	TSN3
December 30th			Peach Bowl	7:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 31st			Cotton Bowl	3:30 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 31st			Orange Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN3, TSN5
January 1st			Fiesta Bowl	1:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
January 1st			Rose Bowl	5:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 1st			Sugar Bowl	8:45 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 4th			Texas Bowl	8:30 PM	TSN5
January 10th			National Championship Game	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN5

Labatt Blue Notes

• How many people are using a vacation day on Friday?  Smart people.  I mean I can’t (just too much work to do) but it’s a smart idea to do to get you that sweet, sweet four-day weekend.
• I have 72 games going to TSN channels this season.  With the CFL back it’s less than it would have probably been last year and a bit less than it has been in the few years previous to that.  I hope this is not a trend in the wrong direction for Canadian fans.
• As of right now I have 21 bowl games and the national championship airing on TSN.  That is really close to two years ago.  Remember, all the issues after Christmas Day (except for New Year’s Day) have to do with the World Junior Hockey Championship.  TSN has a contract to show all WJHC games meaning bowls have to take a bit of a back seat.  Saying that, TSN has done quite the incredible job scheduling these bowl games around the hockey games.  Honestly, if you want to watch anything other than football or hockey in those days, good fucking luck.
• As is the norm, there are no confirmed games for TSN yet.  Chances are I won’t see anything until early August on that front.  I kind of wish they had a setup that ESPN does where you can go to a Press Room-type site and find schedules up to three months or so in advance.  Yes, it may not have details but it will say “we have college football on between this time and this time on this day.”  Which is great since at least I can know that a game for sure will be in that timeslot.
• How many ABC simsubs do I see happening?  I have 16 at this point (which includes the conference championships and the LA Bowl).  That seems like too much and a move in the opposite direction of where I think TSN should go.
• Not doing a conference breakdown.  Instead I will do a channel breakdown:
  • TSN2 – 29
  • TSN1 – 13
  • TSN3 – 17
  • TSN4 – 11
  • TSN5 – 21
• If I predict even close to correct, TSN is utilizing every channel for college football.  This is what they need to do.  To be honest they should do this with the NFL as well since most games (other than the Sunday nighter) only appear on one or two channels.  As for the networks whose games appear on TSN, count ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and the SEC Network.  I am a bit surprised an ACC Network game hasn’t appeared on TSN but until it happens I won’t predict that it will.
• I only have TSN showing the first Thursday night game of the year and after that, nothing.  TSN shows Thursday Night Football (NFL style) throughout the season and I am assuming TSN2 won’t pick up the college games that night.  Friday, on the other hand, is a different story.  I have predicted 6 Friday night games along with a Black Friday tripleheader heading to TSN.  It makes sense for TSN to try and bulk up on those games, especially if they use TSN2 for most of them (which I believe they will).  It’s the one channel that the CFL rarely goes to which means it’s perfect for these Friday Night college games.
• Again with the CFL coming back, who knows what will happen with some of the Saturdays.  If the CFL has three games on any Saturday it could become an issue if there other sports that TSN are also contracted to show like NASCAR or the PGA.  Week 2 could be interesting but the Noon window is wide open as the first game of the CFL tripleheader that weekend starts at 4:00.  Same thing for Week 8 of the college football season.  Finally, it looks like at least for the last few weeks of the season, the CFL is going with the Friday doubleheader followed by a Saturday doubleheader which won’t interfere much with college football, especially with the fact that TSN prefers using the Noon timeslot for college football and most of the rest of the day for their other contracted sports.

I was honest above and I’ll be honest again: these are guesses.  Educated guesses based on previous seasons and info I have at my fingertips, but guesses nonetheless.  I have thought about updating it just before the season but if there are 12-day holds on games ESPN will be showing, then TSN will never have even close to a complete schedule before the season begins.  For this reason I will never do that.

I believe the next post will be the Dog’s Breakfast of Schedules post I’ve done a couple of times before.  Might as well bring it back to give as complete a picture as I can for Canadian viewers before the season begins.  Then, the conference/season predictions which I have to work on before I can even consider posting about.

Alright we are closing right in on Opening Day/Week Zero.  OK closing in is really not the phrase I should use here.  More like we have two months to go.  Two months.  Period.  Part of me wants it to go quickly but it’s the Summer so not too fast alright.  Have a great Canada Day everyone!

Predicting the TSN college football schedule: like picking the 99-1 longshot at the Kentucky Derby

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.  I never get it right.  Ever.  But hey, I have predicted pretty much the entire schedule so I might as well do a brain dump here to, I don’t know, entertain you?

This may get a little more attention since there is nothing fucking going on these days except Coronavirus rearing its ugly head and America plunging into chaos.  I pray this is a nice distraction and that the season actually goes off on time (it won’t be without a hitch that is for sure).  Look, this is not an easy exercise.  I have to piece it together using information from the previous couple years and some gut instinct.  That’s about it.  At least ESPN has all the timeslots pretty much mapped out whereas with TSN, you never know when That’s Hockey has to be shown instead of a college football game.

So let’s just get into the schedule followed by some thoughts blasted into the atmosphere with fireworks (as an homage to the near full week of fireworks in my area).  Oh the asterisk means I have it airing on ABC so you can see it there as well:​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

September 3rd			Eastern Washington at Florida	7:00 PM	TSN5
September 3rd			BYU at Utah	10:15 PM	TSN5
September 4th			North Carolina at UCF	8:00 PM	TSN5
September 5th			Clemson at Georgia Tech	Noon	TSN2
September 5th			UTSA at LSU	7:00 PM	TSN2
September 5th			TCU at California	10:30 PM	TSN2
September 6th			Notre Dame at Navy	2:00 PM	TSN2
September 6th			Ole Miss vs. Baylor (in Houston)	7:30 PM	TSN2
September 7th			Georgia at Virginia	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN4, TSN5
September 12th			Tennessee at Oklahoma	7:30 PM	TSN2*
September 18th			UCF at Georgia Tech	8:00 PM	TSN2
September 19th			Maryland at West Virginia	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
September 19th			Rutgers at Temple	Noon	TSN3, TSN5
September 26th			Ole Miss at LSU	Noon	TSN1
September 26th			South Carolina at Kentucky	Noon	TSN3
September 26th			Colorado State at Vanderbilt	Noon	TSN4
October 1st			Memphis at SMU	8:00 PM	TSN2
October 3rd			Penn State at Michigan	Noon	TSN1, TSN4*
October 3rd			Missouri at Tennessee	Noon	TSN3
October 3rd			Nebraska at Northwestern	Noon	TSN5
October 9th			Miami at Wake Forest	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 9th			Colorado at Arizona	10:30 PM	TSN2
October 10th			Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas)	Noon	TSN2*
October 10th			Minnesota at Wisconsin	Noon	TSN4
October 10th			Fresno State at Texas A&M	Noon	TSN1
October 10th			Iowa State at Oklahoma State	3:30 PM	TSN2*
October 17th			Iowa at Penn State	Noon	TSN1*
October 17th			Georgia at Missouri	Noon	TSN5
October 17th			SMU at Tulane	Noon	TSN3
October 17th			Mississippi State at Alabama	8:00 PM	TSN2
October 21st			Arkansas State at Appalachian State	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN4
October 24th			Syracuse at Clemson	Noon	TSN1*
October 24th			Minnesota at Illinois	Noon	TSN5
October 24th			Wisconsin at Maryland	7:00 PM	TSN2
October 31st			Oklahoma at TCU	Noon	TSN2*
October 31st			Wake Forest at NC State	7:00 PM	TSN2
November 7th			Indiana at Ohio State	Noon	TSN4*
November 7th			Louisville at Virginia	Noon	TSN1
November 7th			Tulane at East Carolina	Noon	TSN5
November 14th			Nebraska at Iowa	Noon	TSN4*
November 14th			Missouri at Florida	7:00 PM	TSN3
November 21st			Iowa State at Texas	Noon	TSN5*
November 21st			Georgia at Kentucky	Noon	TSN3
November 21st			Baylor at West Virginia	Noon	TSN2
November 21st			USC at UCLA	3:30 PM	TSN5*
November 21st			Iowa at Purdue	3:30 PM	TSN3
November 21st			Pittsburgh at Virginia	3:30 PM	TSN2
November 21st			Ohio State at Illinois	7:00 PM	TSN3
November 21st			Oregon at Washington	7:30 PM	TSN5*
November 26th			Mississippi State at Ole Miss	7:30 PM	TSN2
November 27th			NC State at North Carolina	12:30 PM	TSN2
November 27th			West Virginia at Iowa State	4:15 PM	TSN2
November 27th			UCF at USF	8:00 PM	TSN2
November 28th			South Carolina at Clemson	Noon	TSN2
November 28th			Kansas State at Baylor	3:30 PM	TSN2*
November 28th			Kentucky at Louisville	7:00 PM	TSN2
December 5th			Big XII Championship Game	Noon	TSN3*
December 5th			AAC Championship Game	3:30 PM	TSN3*
December 5th			ACC Championship Game	7:30 PM	TSN3*
December 18th			Bahamas Bowl	2:00 PM	TSN2
December 18th			Frisco Bowl	7:30 PM	TSN2
December 19th			New Mexico Bowl	2:00 PM	TSN2
December 19th			Camellia Bowl	5:30 PM	TSN2
December 19th			New Orleans Bowl	9:00 PM	TSN2
December 21st			Gasparilla Bowl	2:30 PM	TSN3, TSN5
December 22nd			Independence Bowl	8:00 PM	TSN5
December 23rd			Quick Lane Bowl	8:00 PM	TSN5
December 26th			Military Bowl	Noon	TSN5
December 26th			Pinstripe Bowl	3:20 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 26th			Texas Bowl	6:45 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 26th			Cheez-It Bowl	10:15 PM	TSN1, TSN5
December 28th			Music City Bowl	4:00 PM	TSN3
December 29th			Belk Bowl	Noon	TSN3
January 1st			Citrus Bowl	1:00 PM	TSN2
January 1st			Rose Bowl	5:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 1st			Sugar Bowl	8:45 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5
January 2nd			Fiesta Bowl	4:00 PM	TSN3, TSN5
January 2nd			Orange Bowl	8:00 PM	TSN3
January 5th			Idaho Potato Bowl	9:30 PM	TSN2
January 11th			National Championship Game	8:00 PM	TSN1, TSN3, TSN5

Thoughts Blasted Into the Atmosphere with Fireworks

• Fireworks were fun when I was a kid but other than those special shows set up by groups for special events, I’m not a fan of fireworks anymore.  I get the point of them but when people start blasting them off six nights before Canada Day they become less special and more annoying to your neighbours.
• I have 80 games going to TSN this season.  And it could be more.  As was mentioned by reader Gordo, if the CFL doesn’t go ahead with the 2020 season, TSN will have to fill the airwaves with something.  Putting repeats of the best plays of 2004 in the CFL won’t satisfy viewers I have a feeling.
• As of right now I have 20 bowl games and the national championship airing on TSN.  That would be very similar to what we saw last season.  The issues of broadcasting the games, at least after Christmas Day, is competition with the World Juniors.  TSN shows every game of the WJHC and has to fit in these bowl games where they can.  I know the World Juniors isn’t until December but the way things are going, who knows if teams will be able to travel to the host site (or sites in the case of this year’s version as it is in Edmonton and Red Deer).
• I have not seen a single confirmed game for TSN which is usually the norm but considering almost nothing is confirmed so far this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see anything until early August or so.
• The amount of ABC simsubs that I have predicted is 17 which includes the AAC, ACC and Big XII Championship games.
• Not doing a conference breakdown.  Instead I will do a channel breakdown (which may be just as useless but whatever):
  • TSN2 – 32
  • TSN5 – 23
  • TSN3 – 19
  • TSN4 – 10
  • TSN1 – 15
• Again TSN2 is truly the Canadian home for college football.  Saying that, the other TSNs have their fair share of games as well so it is nicely spread out.  Plus these numbers could go way up, especially on TSN2 where you rarely see the CFL.
• TSN will show some of the Thursday Night college football games when they occur.  Week 2 is the only week that ESPN doesn’t have a Thursday Night game.  However, most of the other weeks, TSN chooses not to show the Thursday Night affair, probably because of Sportsnet already showing an NFL game those nights.  Not saying the NFL game is always the better game but it will always beat college football in the ratings.
• There isn’t a week where TSN doesn’t show at least one game which is the same as last year but different than what was done previously.  Anytime the CFL had a tripleheader, college football just wasn’t shown.  Sometimes this happened with CFL doubleheaders, depending on the times of the games.
• If you noticed, I have the Notre Dame-Navy game on TSN and it is NOT on during Week Zero.  It has been moved to Week 1 as there is no way at this point that the teams would be able to travel to Ireland for this game.  So it is now being played at Navy.  This has to piss CBS off since the agreement is when the game is at Navy, they get to broadcast it.  Since these are extenuating circumstances, ESPN will still get the game (as far as I know).

Let’s see how this works out.  I am guessing it won’t.  I said last year I might update it before the start of the season if I knew a lot more.  I didn’t know much more so I didn’t bother.  My worry this year is that I will have to update this point in August to stay that a lot of games have been postponed or outright cancelled.

Next up is the Dog’s Breakfast of Schedule posts.  A lot of schedules and quite a long post.  I might break it up but more than likely I will get it all done in one fell swoop to just get it over with.

Alright we are closing in on Opening Day folks, I hope.  As of right now, we are 54 days away from the college football season starting.  Let’s hope that is the case.  Yesterday there were zero deaths related to COVID-19 in Ontario.  This is a good sign…for here.  In the States it is a completely different story as some states are bordering on disaster.  Who knows what we will be looking at next month when college football teams should be in full practice mode getting ready for the season.  Either way, stay safe everyone and enjoy your week.